Encyclopedia > John Poyntz Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer

  Article Content

John Poyntz Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer

John Poyntz Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer (1835-1910) (known as the Red Earl because of his distinctive long red beard) was a British Liberal Party politician under and close friend of British prime minister William Ewart Gladstone.

He succeeded to the Earldom of Spencer in 1857. He served in a number of governmental posts; he served as Lord President of the Council and as First Lord of the Admiralty. Most famously, he served twice as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, when in 1882 Lord Frederick Cavendish and T.H. Burke[?], the Chief Secretary for Ireland[?] and the Under-Secretary for Ireland, were assassinated in what came to be known as the Phoenix Park Murders.

Outside politics, he was the man who introduced barbed wire to Britain.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Northwest Harbor, New York

... the age of 18, 4.8% from 18 to 24, 27.3% from 25 to 44, 28.7% from 45 to 64, and 13.9% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 41 years. For every 100 females ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 47.8 ms